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[Ghazkull]

Dominus

Welcome to Dominus. You, that is four of you, have the honor of being Ludii or a Ludus (in singular), a man or woman in charge of a Gladiatorial School. You make your living by training Slaves, Criminals and even Freemen and then putting them in a pit where they fight to the death for the amusement of the masses.

Of the remaining four, two will have the questionably reputable job of being Brokers. You make your living mounting expeditions to the far flung corners of the world returning with fabulous and mythical creatures, strange men and beings and selling them to the highest bidder for a profit.

The rest of you are Arena Owners. Or more specifically One of you is the Owner of a legitimate Arena for the masses and the public, while the other owns...an establishment for more...lets call it "refined" tastes. Your job consists of arranging fights; no events! You are the ones turning mere butchery into the highest form of entertainment.
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Interested? Here are the Applications:

Spoiler:  Ludus, we need at least two of those (click to show/hide)

Name of your Character:
Name of you Ludum (School):
Speciality of your School: (choose one of the following: Animals, Criminals, Slaves, Freemen)
Backstory: (Optional but always interesting)

Spoiler: Arena Manager, we require on of those (click to show/hide)

Name of your Character:
Backstory:

Spoiler:  Pitlord, not a must but would be important to have one (click to show/hide)

Name of your Character:
Backstory:

Spoiler: Broker, completely optional (click to show/hide)

Name of your Character:
Focus: (Choose One: Strange Animals, Strange People)
Backstory:

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Rules:

Spoiler:  The Humble Gladiator (click to show/hide)

Your Gladiator has several important stats which can be improved upon and show his skill at arms, his ability to survive, his ability to bull through and various other things:

Weapon Skill: The most important stat. Determines how good your Gladiator fights with his chosen weapon (note if he fights with something else he is going to be far worse...obviously)
Health: Goes to 0, your man dies. Period.
Defense: How well blades go off of you, usually thanks to armor but some folks...or somethings are naturally resilient
Agility: Your speed, skill and luck at avoiding being hit at all
Constitution: You know fighting is tiring, so is carrying armor...the longer a fight lasts the higher the chance your man keels over from exhaustion

Beyond those five stats your Gladiator also has an Origin, which is especially important for Ludii:

Freeman: Retired Soldiers, Professional Fighters and the like all of them are free men that for some reason chose to fight in the Arena. Most come extremely skilled into your school already, but they have high wages, high maintenance and will leave when they tire of fighting. Hell some of them might even refuse to fight and you can do nothing! Still, Freemen provide some of the best skilled Gladiators available on short notice. Saves you years of training new ones up.

Criminal: Thieves, Deserters, Murderers and worse. Have no maintenance, have no rights but are more prone than any other Gladiator to cause troubles, to try and flee or even stage an uprising against you if they are unhappy. In return you recieve men who have bring some skill with them.

Slaves: Rightless, no maintenance and more docile, Slaves are easy to aquire, easy to maintain with the downside that they are without ambition and without skill. To aquire skilled slaves as opposed to some random ones becomes increasingly expensive. And some High Class Slaves are horrendously expensive, give of the same hauteur like a Freeman but at least they cannot leave or refuse to fight.

Animals: Animals are different. They don't get much in weapons or armor...they are hard to train, expensive to aquire and have very special and expsnive needs. In return you recieve someone that cannot revolt, flee or cause any kind of trouble. Someone that is extremely good at what it does and sure as hell people love to see some animal ripping apart some douchebag star gladiator.

Special: Beyond the standard chaff from above, you can aquire very special kinds of Gladiators and Animals from your local Brokers. What that may be depends on what he can bring in from the far corners of the world.

Beyond their Origin, Gladiators and Animals also will have special traits and can aquire special traits on occasion. They also can become unhappy and even attempt to revolt or flee if they are really pissed off, this however is not put in a special trait, it will be by gm fiat and ingame hints...so don't worry you will recieve more than enough hints before your slaves decide to lynch you.

Spoiler:  Fighting (click to show/hide)

The system is relatively simple. I will do rolls in a separate IRC chat for those who want to watch proceedings but will not post them ingame since writing down rolls takes ages and slows stuff down. What you will recieve is a splurge of flavor describing how your gladiator is doing in a fight.

In detail a basic fight looks like this: Each battle is distributed into turns. Your Gladiator has a Constitution value, which determines how many turns he can fight without tiring. So if he has a Constiution of 5 he can fight five turns before he gets penalties and 10 before he simply keels over from exhaustion ending the fight.

Each turn, 1d10+WS (weapon skill) is rolled for both gladiators to determine who wins the exchange. The one who has the higher result wins. The loser first compares this value with his Agility value; if the Agility is Higher than the rolled result he simply dodges the blow; if not the same is done with Defense to determine if he simply tanks it. If both fail an injury is incurred and Health is reduced by 1. Depending on rules employed a gladiator can attempt to surrender at various points in a battle.

A battle is over in three cases: one side is dead. One side keels over from exhaustion. One side surrenders. In the latter two cases the people decide depending on the skill shown and general favor whether the gladiator survives or not.

Spoiler:  The Arena (click to show/hide)

The Arena Manager is the legal part of Gladiator Fights. His stuff is above the table and is meant to attract great crowds and important dignitaries. For Maximum Number of Visitors he needs to stage spectacular fights, things that are as even as possible and chains the crowd to their seats.

Dignitaries visiting your town and arena, of course are more interested in something Special. For them a mere fight is not enough, they want an Event! Restaging Historical Battles, Doing Naval Battles, Great Hunts, hell whatever spectacular comes to your mind.

As such as an Arena Manager you are an Event Manager. You get money the more people come in and watch this or by appeasing Dignitaries which however usually have more indirect positive effects on your Arena.

Unsatisfying lopsided fights and brutal butcheries usually lose you Customers, but depending on the Crowds mood, (you can gauge that before a Battle or Event) they sometimes crave exactly for that.
Make the Crowd eat out of your palm and you get rich as hell!

It is up to you what rules you set up for fights in your Arena: you can forbid surrendering or you can allow it. You can do as you please but do not forget, The Ludii want to keep their Gladiators alive, and not waste them in useless displays.

Spoiler:  The Pits (click to show/hide)

As a Pitlord you do not need masses of people. You cater to a select crowd of people with distinguished tastes. Depraved Tastes. Your only currency you recieve from your cut as people bet on the combatants and as such, you need to make the bets interesting. A famed gladiator fighting all naked and unarmed against a bear now thats something to bet on!

Your customers don't care if fights are uneven, they want underdog fights. They crave for that. And the more perverse and underhanded the fights the richer your clientele. Poison? Bear traps in the Corners? Spikes in the Pit? Hidden Traps? Chains and unarmed men against armed behemoths? Wholesale Slaughter? That is what your people crave.

The more seedy your fights the richer the people you attract and with it, the stakes in the bets rise and thus your cut. Thus you are more the men for desperate Ludii as such you have the option to just throw some unarmed slaves in a pit and let people watch that if no Ludus wants to put his gladiators in your suicidal fights. it wont make you rich but it will keep you alive

Spoiler:  Brokers (click to show/hide)

Your job is also one fraught with risk versus reward. You do not simply sell some slaves taken from some salt mine. No Sir. You are providing for those with expensive tastes. As a Broker you Stage Expeditions, fit them out and send them off to far flung lands to return with rare animals, mythical creatures and other outrageous things to sell of in high-stakes auctions.

If push comes to shove you can return to selling low grade slaves and animals as a more secure sort of income.

For now that is all more rules, lore and similiar things will be posted later.
In case you are wondering we are playing in a Low Fantasy Ancient Europe. Some things are as in original timeline, many things, especially at the corners of the known (Roman) World are not.
As for your apps, you are all humans and you should be either Romans or nationalities which were not completely out of place in the Roman Republic. An Egyptian is fine...an Aztec or Japanese not.

[FallacyofUrist]

Spoiler: Broker: Octavian Nolastname (click to show/hide)

Name: Octavian Nolastname
Focus: Strange Animals
Backstory: Octavian Nolastname was an orphan who worked his way to riches after studying under a secretive animal tamer.

[S34N1C]

Spoiler: Drusus Virilus, Ludus (click to show/hide)

Name: Drusus Sextilius Virilis
Name of you Ludum: In ferrum pro schola scelestos
Speciality of your School: Criminals
Backstory:

[Shadowclaw777]

Spoiler: Vopicus Astonis, Ludus (click to show/hide)

 Name: Vopicus Decilian Astonis
Name of your Ludum: Et gloria vicit
Specialty of your school: Freemen
Backstory: Started in life in poverty, rose through the ranks of gladiatorial combat by sheer luck and unyielding training, this has given him a stern look at life and a stern attitude to training these freeloaders that calls themselves "gladiators"

[Ghazkull]

S34NIC accepted.

Shadowclaw work on your grammar but otherwise its fine, also accepted.

Fallacy, no poisons, they are not a commodity in the game that can be bought as such, there won't be that big of a call for that in any case (so you wouldnt even survive surviving on selling poisons alone) and finally there are no game-mechanics for poison at the moment.

[Ardent Debater]

Spoiler:  Pit Lord Domenico Cassini (click to show/hide)

Name of your Character: Domenico Cassini, Purveyor of Punishment, Connoisseur of Carnage, Humble Lord of the Pit

Backstory: Domenico Cassini was once a wealthy merchant, he lived in the lap of luxury and had everything one could ever want, but he was not content. He thirsted for the arena, to see blood spilled and bones broken in glorious display. Each and every opportunity he had he spectated in the colosseum, but it was not enough.

He desired more, more, and more gladitorial slaughter each day, until finally he snapped. He sold everything he had and bribed, talked, and cajoled his way into the esteemed ranks of gladitorial Pit Lords, and he couldn't be happier. Domenico is a short, dumpy little man with a hairy chin and a flair for the theatrical and dramatic. He's very outspoken and eccentric, his sanity is questionable but he certainly loves his job.

[Ghazkull]

Aardent Debater: excellent you are in!

[chubby2man]

Regulus Florius Pavia: Arena Manager

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Backstory:   Born to the equites class, Regulus Florius Pavia had always sought more power, more wealth, and more prestige than what he had. He tried his hand at soldiering, but he had no talent for that. His dabbling in trading was extremely unsuccessful. While sitting dejectedly in the seats of an area, nursing a cup of second rate wine, he looked away from the fight in the sands below and to the grandbox. There he saw the arena manager, a man of no greater birth than himself, talking away with various dignitaries, and even a governor! This gave him inspiration and he half- jumped out of his seat! If he couldn’t gather prestige through fighting, perhaps he could do it by hosting his own games...
   Regulus borrowed, cajoled, and sold enough to buy his first arena, and while gold and influence has started to pour in, still he seeks more glory and more prestige.

[crazyabe]

PTW, Sheet possible.

[Ghazkull]

and you are in!

Excellent, now we have enough to start the game at least, still three spots are still open, if more people come in that would be great otherwise we will begin the game tomorrow.

[FallacyofUrist]

Fallacy, no poisons, they are not a commodity in the game that can be bought as such, there won't be that big of a call for that in any case (so you wouldnt even survive surviving on selling poisons alone) and finally there are no game-mechanics for poison at the moment.

Shame. Thought there would be at least some sort of poison, though.

And the more perverse and underhanded the fights the richer your clientele. Poison? Bear traps in the Corners? Spikes in the Pit?

Revising sheet.

[Kashyyk]

PTW,  and potentially make a sheet of there's a role that particularly needs filling.

[Ghazkull]

Fallacy there is indeed Poison in the game but not as in: Black Scoprion Poison and Green Mamba Poison and what have you. There is just poison in general, but with no particular unique rules and mechanics tied to it.

If i add someone who specializes in selling poison, then i need to differentiate between poisons, give them different stats develop proper mechanics for it instead of fiatting that, then there needs to be a market for it...and so on and so forth and despite everything there wouldn't be enough business to center your business around.

Kashyyk at the moment we have 2 Ludii Open and One Broker.

Year 0, Month 0

The city of Delecta lies on the border between the central and the northern provinces of the Republic. With ten thousand inhabitants it has the potential to become incredibly important...only it never did. Its position is not overly strategic, nor does it produce anything of value. Even as a crossroads it fails, the Burzum river passing through its neighbouring towns as well and allowing just as quick travel to any important nearby place.

In short, Delecta is one of these many mid-sized towns or cities (if one was generous) which are quite numerous ine very country but seem rather unimportant overall. However Delecta has one thing which all of its three neighbours lack: An Arena.

True it is a shoddy wooden affair, holding barely a hundred people. But still its an Arena. Built by an Equites by the name of Regulus Florius Pavia, who apparently sold off most of his inheritance and worldly riches for this wooden monument to his dreams, it is the only real distinguishing feature of Delecta.

Of course to such an Arena no ludum of any note would even consider coming. Therefore it is left to the newcomers and youngsters in the Gladiatorial School Business to provide the sacrifices for the endless thirst of the masses.


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Spoiler:  Arena Manager - Regulus Florius Pavia (chubby2man) (click to show/hide)

Wealth: 100 Sesterces

Small Wooden Rostra - can seat up to 100 People
Current Ticket Prices - 1 Sesterce per head

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As any City of any size, even Delecta can boast its seedy underworld. In this case the seedy underworld consists solely of its illegal fighting establishment for the Depraved and the Rich. Owned by Domenico Cassini, it is a simple affair yet still effective.

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Spoiler:  Pit Lord Domenico Cassini (Ardent Debater) (click to show/hide)

Wealth: 100 Sesterces

Small Wooden Fighting Pit

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For now Delecta would host only two Gladiatorial Schools: In ferrum pro schola scelestos; led by Ludus Drusus Virilius, a man using primarily criminals, offering them a chance to escape their penalties if they would just shed blood for him. And then there is the school of the formerly famous Vopicus Astonis, a retired gladiator using his retirement funds to start his own School.

Spoiler:  Ludus Drusus Virilius(S34NIC) (click to show/hide)

Wealth: 100 Sesterces

Buildings

Training Field

Staff
1 Average Doctore

Gladiators

Marcus - No Equipment!
Weapon Skill: 1
Health: 3
Defense: 1
Agility: 9
Constitution: 10
Origin: Criminal
Traits:

Lar - No Equpment!
Weapon Skill: 2
Health: 3
Defense: 1
Agility: 6
Constitution: 7
Origin: Criminal
Traits:

Titus - No Equipment!
Weapon Skill: 5
Health: 3 (-1)
Defense: 1
Agility: 7
Constitution: 6 (-1)
Origin: Criminal
Traits:
Frail (-1 Constiution, -1 Health)

Private Contacts

Gaius the Centurion - Offering 5 Criminals at 100 Sesterces

Spoiler:  Ludus Vopicus Astonis (click to show/hide)

Wealth: 100 Sesterces

Buildings

Training Field

Staff
1 Average Doctore

Gladiators

Maximus Quirinius - Costs 10 Sesterces per month
Weapon Skill: 9 (+3)
Health: 3
Defense: 1 (+4)
Agility: 14 (-2 Agility)
Constitution: 6
Origin: Freeman
Traits:
Equipment: Wooden Square Shield (+2 Defense, -1 Agility), Iron Gladius (+3 Weapon Skill, -1 Agility), Leather Armor (Defense +2)

Spoiler:  Ludus Lesbonicus Pertinax (click to show/hide)

Wealth: 100 Sesterces

Buildings

Training Field

Staff
1 Average Doctore

Gladiators

Thrall
Weapon Skill: 0
Health: 3
Defense: 1
Agility: 6
Constitution: 5
Origin: Slave
Traits: Showman (brings in extra visitors by making a show of Battles)

Karl
Weapon Skill: 0
Health: 3
Defense: 1
Agility: 5
Constitution: 6 (+1)
Origin: Slave
Traits:
Natural Constitution (+1)


Petrus
Weapon Skill: 0 (-1)
Health: 3
Defense: 1
Agility: 5
Constitution: 6
Origin: Slave
Traits:
Pacifist - This Gladiator refuses to fight...for now

Melarix
Weapon Skill: 0
Health: 3
Defense: 1
Agility: 5
Constitution: 6
Origin: Slave
Traits:

Decius
Weapon Skill: 0
Health: 3
Defense: 1
Agility: 6
Constitution: 5
Origin: Slave
Traits:

Opidiamus
Weapon Skill: 0
Health: 3
Defense: 1
Agility: 5
Constitution: 6
Origin: Slave
Traits:

Spoiler:  Ludus Leadius Gordianus (click to show/hide)

Wealth: 100 Sesterces

Buildings
A young Oak sapling
Kennel

Staff
1 Average Animal Trainer

Beasts

Unnamed Wargr
Weapon Skill: 3
Health: 5
Defense: 3
Agility: 8
Constitution: 10
Origin: Beast
Traits:
Wargr- A Ravenous Wolf of gargantuan size rumored to be offspring of some northern monstrosity

Unnamed Wargr
Weapon Skill: 3
Health: 5
Defense: 3
Agility: 8
Constitution: 10
Origin: Beast
Traits:
Wargr- A Ravenous Wolf of gargantuan size rumored to be offspring of some northern monstrosity

Gladiators

Torg
Weapon Skill: 1
Health: 3
Defense: 3
Agility: 7
Constitution: 3
Origin: Moss-Man
Traits:
Treebound - Mossfolk are bound to their trees, if their tree dies, they die with it
Mossfolk - gray hip-high creatures covered in moss

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Finally there was a single trader in the exotic in the town, A simple man named Octavian, specializing in the sale of exotic animals

Spoiler:  Broker(Animals) -  Octavian (click to show/hide)

Wealth: 100 Sesterces

Staff
1 Republican Tracker
1 Squad of Roman Hunters

Spoiler:  Expedition Targets this Month (click to show/hide)

Republican Heartlands
Cost: 0
Easy to access but the Republican Heartlands have been tamed, there is not much of interest to find. (Example finds: Wolves)

The Northern Provinces
Cost: 10
Still easy to access but already well explored and settled. (Example finds: Timberwolves, boars, Fuath, Korrigans)

The Southern Provinces
Cost: 10
THe Southern Areas of the Republic still have some exotic beasts (example finds: coyotes, crocodiles, lions)

Pictlands
Cost: 50
The dangerous areas of the red haired savages, their thick and dark forests are filled with untamed beasts of all sorts (example finds: black dogs, Jacks(pictish giants), unicorns)

Lands of the Suevi
Cost: 50
Night Raiders, babarians, savages. They are not the most terryfing thing that creeps in those untamed lands (example finds: trolls, bears, drakes)

Far Hyboria
Cost: 100 (3 months expedition)
Beyond the lands of the Suevi, beyond even Cimmeria and the Sarmatians lies Far Hyboria, lands no civilized man has trod...who knows what manner of exotic things you will encounter there?

Spoiler:  Broker - Maximus (click to show/hide)

Wealth: 100 Sesterces

Staff
1 Squad of Roman Slavetakers
3 Squads of Retired Legionaries

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Spoiler:  Slave market (click to show/hide)

1 Useless Slave á 1 Sesterce
10 Standard Slaves á 5 Sesterces
20 Subpar Slaves á 3 Sesterces
1 Skilled Slave á 50 Sesterces
1 Sarmatian Warrior á 100 Sesterces

á means what you pay per single unit so 1 Standard Slave = 5 Sesterces

Spoiler:  Equipment (click to show/hide)

Weapons:
Wooden: 1 Sesterce
Copper: 5 Sesterces
Bronze: 10 Sesterces
Iron: 50 Sesterces
Steel: 100 Sesterces

Shields
Wooden Board - 1 Sesterce
Buckler - 5 Sesterce
Wooden Square Shield - 10 Sesterce
Legionary Square Shield - 20 Sesterces
Round Shield - 50 Sesterces
Centurion Shield -100 Sesterces
Northern Shield - 150 Sesterces
Praetorian Shield - 200 Sesterces

Armor
Cloth - 1 Sesterce
Leather - 10 Sesterce
Bronze Armor -20 Sesterce
Iron Mail -50 Sesterce
Iron Scale - 50 Sesterce
Iron Plate - 50 Sesterces
Steel Mail - 200 Sesterces
Steel Scale - 200 Sesterces
Steel Plate - 200 Sesterces

Spoiler:  Animals on Sale (click to show/hide)

Wild Dogs - 20 Sesterces
Wolves - 50 Sesterces
Lions - 500 Sesterces
1 Troglodyte - 800 Sesterces

GM NOTE:
The above is merely what is publically available to anyone, you can contact your private contacts for special deals on things.
Staff and Arena/Pit Expansions and similiar things work on GM Fiat, meaning you tell me what you want i tell you what it costs and where to get it.
You can also make Custom Expedition, just tell me where you want to go and we can talk about the prices.
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Mood of the Public: BORED
Mood of the Nobility: BORED
Criminal Underworld: NON EXISTANT

Explanation of the Above: Currently people are happy with anything as long as something happens.
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Training

Your Doctore can train your gladiators in Weapon Skill, Agility and Constitution. Just write down which gladiator should be trained this month and in which skill. 1 Doctore can train up to 5 Gladiators.

[Kashyyk]

I think this game most needs another Ludus.

Spoiler: Lesbonicus Pertinax (click to show/hide)

Name of you Ludum (School): Igne Iudicii
Speciality of your School: Slaves
Backstory: A generally unpleasant and arrogant snob, Lesbonicus claims to have visited every major arena in the Heartlands. Watching men and beats fight for his amusement instilled the belief that true gladiators aren't born, they're made. His treatment of his gladiators is thus appalling, to the extent that slaves are the only ones who'll put up with the ordeal.

[Ghazkull]

accepted, ill add you to the above post.